Work sucks!!!

My work is sucking so bad right now that I don’t enjoy going to work anymore.  I still love what I am doing but my assistant is the source of all my stress.

I’ve always thought I am a good leader, but work is making me re-think my skills.  I’ve always take the lead throughout school, all my jobs in college, and even was President of the sorority leading 18 girls.  I was also Pledge Mom for 1 semester teaching and guiding 8 new girls to become a part of our organization.  During this time, I’ve done loads of public speeches at formals and travel to our sister college campuses to make speeches.  Even within the U of H campus, I’ve attend other organization’s events and make speeches there.  I never thought in a million years that I have a communication problem!!! Seriously..are you kidding me??!!  Somehow I’ve been with at this place for 6 years and now suddenly has lost my communication skill.

It all started with me hiring this assistant from a great company.  My first clue of something not right is when he was let go from this company we worked with and contacted me to apply for a job.  However, his supervisor gave him a great reference and assured us there was nothing fishy about him being let go so I trusted it.  In hindsight I think the right questions was just not asked to him.  Since I didn’t do the reference call, I can’t tell what was asked nor said, just what was relayed to me.  My biggest regret is not listening to my instinct when I wasn’t happy with his performance after working with him at the other company.  I just dismissed as an isolated incident.

After messing up project after projects and counsel after counsel, I wanted to let him go after he majorly screw up a simple technical task.  This is a task even college students in our field knows how to do.  He claim that he failed at all these projects because of communications problem. Then somehow his incompetencies turn into faults of mine..my expectations of him is too high; I shouldn’t worry about the details if the web page looks okay (again..seriously??!!!!); that I nitpick too much in which I tried to explain I have to in my field. It doesn’t help when your boss doesn’t understand your line of work.

So if I lower my expectation and he screw up, is it going to be somehow my fault again because I didn’t supervise him?  If I don’t worry about the details of the page and the page has an error, wouldn’t I be the one who look bad?

This just bring back memory of growing up and being the middle child.  I could never be right in any situation.  I am just so frustrated and unsatisfy right now.  I don’t feel that I am being valued at work nor anyone appreciate my hard work.  I’ve been happy at this place until now and I don’t feel my boss support me nor stand up for me in front of upper management.  She’s a great friend but but maybe I’ve stayed at this place too long and it’s time to explore other options.

Hieu's Company Christmas Party

Hieu's annual Christmas even for this kids experience a little cut back this year. There is no snow machine, no petting zoo, and some of the rides are cut out. It's still nice for them to host one for the kids and we are so thankful so no complaints here. We took my nephew with us and I made a Vietnamese pastry call pate cheaud for breakfast.

We got there at about 10 a.m. and the kids had more fun than last year.

Last year Hieu and I were stressed out and keep yelling at each other so the kids didn't have fun and we only stayed for about 1 hour. http://ky-an.blogspot.com/2007/12/holiday-pictures.html. was much more crowded and the lines were long so everyone got cranky. I also didn't pack any snacks because I was busy taking care of Miss Ai-Vy. This year I was much better prepared with the snacks and drinks. Just look at the kid's pictures last year made me a little sad at how fast they've grown.

It was bout her nap time when we got there so she as a bit tired:

Hieu insist that I took a picture with the 3 kids. Ky-An was busy with his new goodies bag:


Ky-An used to love the barrel train but somehow refused to sit in it this year. My nephew was so sweet and tried to comfort Ky-An when he was crying.

I asked Hieu to take Ky-An out and my nephew rode the train by himself. I think you will notice he's the most bundled person in the train. He refused to take off his jacket, we are not sure why.

He finally took off the heavy jacket to go in the bouncing house:


It's time for a snack and they all crowd around me. It's so nice to see Ky-An got his chubby cheeks back. He was so skinny after his stomach virus.

Trying to feed all of them:

Ai-Vy had so much fun running around the empty parking lot while big brother and her cousin are in line for the rides. She just had a blast running around oblivious to a nervous mommy hovering over her in case she falls. She got so much attention with her adorable matching jacket (hand-me-down from her cousin) and shoes.


This is how she looks before she smiles:

And finally a captured smile from Ai-Vy!!

We got lucky and also was able to capture a beautiful smile from Ky-An. He was running between Hieu's legs while they were waiting line.


We didn't have many pictures of my nephew because he doesn't want to participate and gets mad whenever we take a picture of him.

It's basket time!

This is my favorite time of the year and since I started couponing, it's even more fun because I get to make baskets from all the things from my stockpile and cut back on our gifts budget.

I made these two sample baskets for my sister to give to her son's teachers. I am charging her $10 per basket but retail value is about $25. The first is the de-stressing basket. It consist of:

• Glade candle holder. Retail $4.99
• 2 Glade candle refill. Retail 2.50*2=$5
• 2 Dove trial size bars. Retail $1.29*2=$2.58
• 1 Bliss chocolate bag. Retail $4
• 1 M&M dark chocolate. Retail $2.50
• 1 Crest trial size toothpaste. Retail $1
• 1 Curel trial size lotion. Retail $1
• 1 Basket $2.61
  
• TOTAL = $25.61
  
  
• 1 Celestial tea $1.29
• 1 Bliss chocolate. Retail $4
• 1 M&M Dark chocolate. Retail $4
• 1 Purell Foam Hand Sanitizer. Retail $3
• 1 Dial Antibacterial Handwash $1.29
• 1 Puff tissue paper. Retail $1.29
• 1 Excedrin. Retail $2.29
• 1 Johnson & Johnson Emergency Kit. Retail $1
• 1 Crest trial size. Retail $1
• 1 Basket $2.61
  
• TOTAL = $25.77
  

I thought she wouldn't like it but she love it so much she asked me to make her 2 extra ones. So in total I made 4 baskets for my sister, 4 for Hieu's co-workers, 3 for my co-worker, 1 for the office party, 3 for the ladies that share their coupons with me, 4 for the cleaning crew that clean our house, and 1 for the mail lady, and 1 huge box for the babysitter for a total of about $25! This is after I subtract the $40 my sister gave me for creating the 4 baskets for her.

This is what my sister's finished basket looks like. Those flowers are from the KY gift set that was free at Wal-Mart last year.


This is Hieu's boss' basket. I had the bright idea of using our Christmas tree clippings as decorations for the basket. I was so proud. :) It made the basket looks more masculine aside from all the male products I put in there.


Hieu got me some construction paper from the Dollar store and I used our shredder to shred them and use as lining for all these baskets. No need to buy those basket shredding they have at the store!

This is the box I made for the our work's White Elephant gift exchange. I put all the office snacks in there including chocolate bars, gum, peanuts, and hot sauce. I put the shrink wrap on top and put the lid back on.

This is the basket I did for our babysitter. Hieu wrapped up the outside of a box for me and I line it with cellophane paper, put in all household items in there, and wrap it up. I am also including a $100 gift cert to Wal-Mart for her and her family. She's been wonderful at taking care of our two kids and took care of them like they are her own grand kids. We just can't put a price tag on leaving our kids with someone we trust and who genuinely loves them.

Here's a little bag I made for the ladies who clean my house. The owner gets a basket but these are for the ladies who help her. The bag was from the Playskool bottle set that was clearanced at CVS a while back. I think it was $.79 or $1.29 for each, I can't remember. I sold the bottles at the garage sale for $.50 and there was a diaper and sample wipe pack that came with it. I bought 3 of them but can't find the third bag anywhere. It's forever gone in the mess in our house. I am not sure what to do if there are 3 helping ladies coming this week instead of 2 though!

Out-of-State Training trip

I am in charge of the web content management system at work and we've switched to a new one since the beginning of this year. I came back from my maternity leave in January and was suppose to go to the training soon afterward so I am knowledgeable in maintaining this software.

I've been dreading it and my boss has been super understanding and let me decide on when I want to go. We both know that I need to go soon but she is so great at not pushing me because she understands how hard it is for me to go out-of-state with two young ones. If they are more independent then it wouldn't have been a problem but can't even put Ai-Vy down to sleep. In addition, Ky-An cries every night if he wakes up and I am not there.

I've been debating on what to do with this training and weighed all my options. We tried to ask our babysitter to come along but she can't. We tried to ask to ask her daughter to come along to help but she has school. Then Hieu thought maybe he can stay home with the kids and her daughter can come over to help him in the evening. I thought about this for a couple of days but soon realize it's not going to work because Hieu can't hear neither of the kids when they wake up at night. He is not going to make it if both kids wake up crying at the same time.

I even contacted the training center to see if I can just get the training book or if they have in-state training. It's a no on both so I am back on square one.

My little sister had a little break this summer before starting her new job so I decide it would be the best time. Hieu is still uncertain of taking the kids to Chicago for a whole week. I talked it over with my boss to see what she thinks and she pushed me to go ahead. She told me she did the same thing when her kids are young so there's no going back. Amazingly I found out that we've accumulated enough miles over the years for 5 round-trip tickets to Chicago! I persuaded my oldest sister and her family to come along and hang out with Hieu and the kids. Fortunately they agreed when I offered to paid for 2 of their tickets with my free miles. Then my sister's friend also wants to come so I got tickets for everyone.

Everything is going into place and I can't be happier. I finally get this training over with, Hieu will have some help with the kids, and the kids get to hang out with their cousins and have lots of fun. We rented a townhouse for the week because I wanted the kids to be as comfortable as they can when we are away from home. I don't think they will last in a cramped hotel where one can't make any noise as the other one naps. We have lots of things to pack and get ready for the trip but I am excited. I think Ky-An will have so much fun riding on "Big Jet" and visiting a new city.

I screwed up majorly at work

I was super tired this morning after the trip and just wanted to stay in bed. I really should have had I known what were about to happen today. Those of you know me know that I am a web programmer. I code web pages all day and work on the database. This morning I got an email that there is a page I need to troubleshoot because it's causing an error. I was testing the query in the database to see if it's running correctly. In the older version of the database, there is a warning before the query would commit. However in the newer one, the query just ran without any warning. I basically update over 42,000 records with the exact same information. I tried to undo and rollback but it didn't work.

I ran to the IT guys and ask if they have a backup copy of the database. I was so happy and relieved when they told me they backed up the database every night. All things start falling like a domino effect when the IT guy came with a concerned look on his face. Apparently they backed up all other database but somehow overlooked this one. I went into crisis mode and try to recover data. I have a 2 months old copy of the database on my local computer for testing and went to recover the data from that database. Fortunately I overwrote only some fields and not the main ones nor delete them out. Since my database is 2 months old, there are over 8,000 records that are unaccounted for.

I went to break the news to my boss taking full responsibility and expecting her to reprimand me. However, I was surprised that she was more upset at the Network guys for not backing up the database. To give you a glimpse of the seriousness of this situation, the COO was involved and I wouldn't be surprise if our Executive Director hears about it also. Half of our department will have to go through the files and enter in all these data that I overwrote. Needless to say I felt crappy all day even though everyone tried to sympathize and tell me these things happen.

The politic part of things is that the IT Manager, our Director, and I are all friends. I hang out with both of them after work and know about their family life. The IT manager wasn't in today so I called him and tell him about the crisis. I was surprised he was quite nonchalant about it. I think he figure it's my problem and I have to fix it. I don't think he realize that everyone is putting most of the blame on them for overlooking the backup. I tried to call him after work to give him a heads up of what's going on but he never return my call. Maybe he thinks I am calling to bother him about the database that I messed up on...I am not sure. I also am worry that he thinks our Directory is playing favorites toward me because he gets the blame.

All I can say is that I hope the rest of the week is better.

You've got to be kidding me!

My big web project at work is ready to be launched at the beginning of December. That means I have to be trained to know how to make changes and work the new system. The training has to happen before the launch because once the website is launched, the consultant's contract ends. I have to go in for an all day training on November 14th. I have to leave my 8 week old baby all day to go to work...grrrrr.

Luckily it's only for one day and Hieu is going to watch her instead of having to take her to the babysitter's. It still suck because I will be in training all day so I won't have time to pump. I am going to be engorged and aching while trying to cram all these stuff in my head.

THEN I have to go for week long administrative training out of state next year to learn about this system extensively because I'll be taking care of it. I understand it's my responsibilty but the timing just suck. How am I going to leave my kids for a whole week to fly out-of-state for this training next year? Forget that I'll be missing them like crazy, Ai-Vy will probably still be breastfeeding and how is Hieu going to handle both of them for a week. That's asking too much out of him. Hieu and I discussed this and we probably have to pack the whole family with me AND the babysitter for the week.